nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) (09/22/85)
[I just can't be quiet about this.]
I've been told many times that the "serious" British music press can't
stand Kate Bush. That because she's female, upper-class, beautiful,
romantic, was handed a record contract at the age of sixteen and was
immediately a huge success without ever having to struggle, speaks with
a lisp, and always says "Wow!" and "Amazing!" and other "hippyisms" that
she was viewed as someone who clearly couldn't have any real talent.
The stereotypical reaction to her was supposedly something like "She's
just a spaced-out druid with lush tits".
When last month Helen Fitzgerald of Melody Maker reviewed the single
"Running Up That Hill" she did so stereotypically, saying that Kate Bush
must have phony tits and should be burned at the stake. So everything I
had been told about the British music press was confirmed.
Strangely, in the past several weeks there has been a total turn-around
in the reaction in the British music press towards Kate Bush. For the
first time in seven years she is getting the recognition she deserves.
*Now* it is "hip" to like Kate Bush. Reviews for her new album "Hounds
of Love" have just appeared and I haven't yet found a negative one. In
fact, everyone I have found except one has been a *rave* review.
The NME, which has traditionally been one of the magazines which
continually makes fun of her, says that "Hounds of Love" is the best
album of the year! "Kate's a genius, the rarest solo artist this
country's ever produced." "Sounds" gave it five stars: "If I were
allowed to swear, I'd say that 'Hounds of Love' is f***ing brilliant,
but me mum won't let me.... all human life contained herein. Dramatic,
moving and wildly, unashamedly, beautifully romantic." Of the big
weeklies, only Melody Maker did less than rave. Their reaction is
mixed, but they say that parts of it are great. The reviewer, though
says that he can't stand concept albums. How's that for being unbiased?
In other magazines, Smash Hits gave it a 9 out of 10. It is the pick of
the month. The reviewer for Kerrang, Mick Wall, wrote two pages of
verbal orgasm. "Young Kate's a f**king genius." He's clearly a Kate
Bush fanatic. He's one of the very few people who gave "The Dreaming" a
positive review, and he orgasmed over that too, but he did so more than
a year after the album had been released. Yes, this is Kerrang -- the
heavy metal magazine! Kate headlines with Kiss, Crawling Chaos, The
Venom, Ozzy, and Saga! Oh boy, oh boy!
So what's really puzzling me is why is it suddenly okay to like Kate
Bush? In fact, now she's even being lavished with praise, when before
she was considered just about as hip as Bobby Sherman. If it's the
change in her image away from a cute sex kitten, then how come "The
Dreaming" was demolished by the British press? Maybe nobody really
listened to it because they had their minds already made up?
Is all this praise a good sign? Maybe there is some fatal flaw with the
album that I'm missing and it isn't really the second best album ever
recorded -- some fatal flaw that causes the jerks in the British music
press to love it.
If the media reaction is any indication of the popular reaction to
"Hounds of Love", Kate Bush will soon be a multi-zillionare. Maybe then
she can afford to buy her own transatlantic boat, and won't have to
depend on the QE2 working, and can make it over to the U.S. this time
around.
In any case, here is the entire review by Jane Solana that was in the
NME. It does a little bit to explain the change in the media reaction:
BUGGER "Wuthering Heights"! Signed up, like a footballer at age
16 by EMI Records, Kate Bush in her 11 year reign as pop's most
idiosyncratic female has always been tainted by the notion that
as "the company's daughter" she represents The Establishment and
therefore is -- RIGHT OFF...
Beloved of Radio 1 producers and TV pop show awards, Kate Bush
has been "family entertainment" for many years; a lovable fact
of media life. Even the rumours surrounding Bush's three year
disappearance (compulsive eating, junk, and religious fervor)
didn't hold water. Washed up? Our Kate? NEVER...
'Running Up That Hill' hit the singles chart and blew heads
away. Principally, because no one's heard a classy 45, totally
lacking in teen-appeal, in months. Kate Bush, at 27, is at last
HIP. I hope she's laughing, because people have been in stiches
over her.
Before we're trampled in the rush for copies of Kate Bush's new
LP, a brief reminder of 'The Dreaming' -- the 1982 Bush album no
one bought. I don't want to hear anyone say 'Hounds of Love' is
far out who hasn't heard its predecessor, because -- three
years' gap or not -- it's an obvious progression of the skill
shown on 'The Dreaming'.
Musically and lyrically Kate Bush's influences haven't changed
since 'The Dreaming' and its three brilliant singles ('Sat In
Your Lap', 'The Dreaming', 'There Goes A Tenner') bombed. Only
the climate has changed, ie the BBC and a nation of reactionary
punters are now ready for our Kate's weird shit.
And 'Hounds of Love' is definitely weird. It's not an album for
the suicidal or mums and dads. The violence of 'The Dreaming'
has turned into despair, confusion and fear -- primarily of
love, a subject that remains central to Bush's songwriting.
'Running Up That Hill' was one hell of a depressing record to be
bopping around the living room to. It explores the horrors of
relationships and pin-pointed the total lack of communication
between men and women.
"You never understood me/ You never really tried" is a line sung
aggressively by Bush on 'The Big Sky', a track on the supposedly
'up' side of 'Hounds of Love'. The desperation of revealing
truth to anyone, let alone a lover, runs througout the album.
Ironically, Bush uses her most cryptic lyrics to get this
message across eg "And if I only could/ I'd make a deal with
God/ And I'd get him to swap our places" didn't endear her to
the more literal-minded members of the record buying public.
What *they* are going to make of side two of 'Hounds of Love' is
anyone's guess, because that dreaded late '60s affliction, 'the
concept album', has been resurrected by Bush. Result: an entire
side of Kate stuck in a pond drowning...
Ludicrous as that may sound, 'The Ninth Wave' sequence works,
though it's far from immediate and may well piss off those used
to Kate Bush's more traditional approach to crafting songs (The
Beatles and folk music being a strong source).
But there is plenty of *that* on side one, any track which would
make a fine single, though I'd pick out 'Cloudbusting' as the
best.
Complex music it may well be, but Kate Bush will always have the
ace card up her sleeve in that she consistently manages to make
her records erotic, however depressing the lyrical content. The
Bush voice drips with sex. But whereas it used to be
middle-class and 'virginal' (David Hamilton posters and
bed-sitters), it's now classless and shamelessly aggressive (a
mad thrash up an alley). Many a seduction scene will go down as
'Hounds of Love' grinds to a halt on the deck. If you think
that's a preposterous notion, then you're a sucker for
marketing; EMI have packaged this album with Kate Bush (famous
tits tastefully concealed) in bed with two dogs.
When The Establishment's on your side you can get away with
murder. You can do just one tour in ten years, spend limitless
hours and many a tenner in the studio, leap around your own
dance studio to your heart's content, stick your family all over
your records, fuck off for three years and come zooming straight
back into the charts like you've never been anywhere at all. In
any other artist it would be sickening, but our Kate's a genius,
the rarest solo artist this country's ever produced. She makes
skeptics dance to *her* tune. The company's daughter has truly
screwed the system and produced the best album of the year doing
it. You may all go and kiss the sleeve. I have...
-Doug Alan
Nessus@MIT-Eddie.MIT.EDU (or ARPA or UUCP)
P.S. So when is Roy Harper going to become a big star too?